Do Low-Carb Diets Help Diabetes?

WebMD ^ | March 15, 2006 | Salynn Boyles

[ConservativeMind]

Should people with type 2 diabetes follow very low carbohydrate diets? The American Diabetes Association (ADA) says "no", but a small study from Sweden suggests such a diet may be one of the best ways to manage the disease and reduce the need for medication.

“Many people are essentially cured of their [type 2] diabetes by low-carbohydrate diets, but that message is not getting out," says low-carb proponent and biochemistry professor Richard Feinman, PhD, of the SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.

While agreeing that carbohydrate restriction helps people with type 2 diabetes control their blood sugar, ADA spokesman Nathaniel G. Clark, MD, tells WebMD that the ADA does not recommend very low-carb diets because patients find them too restrictive.

"We want to promote a diet that people can live with long-term," says Clark, who is vice president of clinical affairs and youth strategies for the ADA. "People who go on very low carbohydrate diets generally aren't able to stick with them for long periods of time."

[ChiMark]

Pure maple syrup is 2/3 sucrose. Better than refined sugar but be aware.

[itsahoot]

Make yourself a delicious 8 ounce chopped steak.

Believe it or not Bob they taste bad no matter what I do. I can add spiced mustard of Heinz 57 or I can't get them down. Taste has left me for good I guess.

Thanks for all the tips but I have been doing most of this for 20 years, 50 years ago the eggs and spinach diet was a fad that worked but it didn't take long for you to get all the eggs and spinach you ever wanted. I sous vide for tenderness. A chuck roast at 140 for two days does wonders but it doesn't help the taste for me and it is just me. Like my doc getting old sucks.

A couple weeks ago they were touting a pill that sort of lined the stomach and produced exactly the same result on diabetes as bariatric surgery. Like most miracles they are always just beyond our lifespan.

[Yosemitest]

"Low carb IS too restrictive when adopted as a new lifestyle.
It’s stupid."

If you're diabetic type II, a low-carb life-style is almost "A MUST" ... IF YOU WANT TO LIVE VERY LONG !

I was diagnosed as Diabetic type II a little over 12 years ago, and I've had my ups and downs with this health problem.
What I've learned is that, if you want to lose weight, it's almost impossible if you're taking insulin shots every day.
Now I'm on pills and shots, and a "BYDUREON B'Cise" Pen, taken once a week, has helped me to lower the amount of insulin I take in my daily shot.
Also, I'm retired and having to take care of my aging parents, one of whom has Diabetes Type II.
I follow a few thru-hikers on YouTube who are diabetic, and Ilve learned that daily hiking can lower the amount of insulin you need to take daily,
But watching what you eat and drink ... is at the very heart of controlling ... and even reversing diabetes type II.

I recommend the following information FOR EVERYONE TO WATCH AND READ:

Reversing Type 2 Diabetes Naturally In 7 Steps
Daily Health Post
Oct 8, 2017

7 Steps to Reverse Obesity and Diabetes
Written by MARK HYMAN, MD


Ultimate Hiking Guide for People with Diabetes

[Yosemitest]

Go to Longhorn's Restaurant and eat a steak cooked the proper way, either medium-rare or medium.
Amy more done than that, and you lose the great flavor of the steak.

[itsahoot]

Amy more done than that, and you lose the great flavor of the steak.

Believe me I know it. My wife on the other hand can stand a steak no matter how you fix it. I used to love steak but my taste has changed for the worse and I can't fix it. Bacon also has lot its appeal so something is wrong with my senses. I have taken zinc don't know much more to do.

I have an acoustic neuroma in the right ear been treated a couple times with radiation looked to be stable last time I had it checked but I have had more MRIs than I can count. That could be the problem but couldn't get Docs to commit to any analysis. Like they said, sucks to be old. I will be 80 this year.

[MayflowerMadam]

My friend totally turned around her Type 2 be stopping about 95% of bread and cutting back on sweets, but not totally eliminating them. She got it under control in about 8 or 9 months.

[antidisestablishment]

The rise in incidence of Type 2 diabetes in the American population correlates with the introduction of processed foods and the hazardous food pyramid. Fresh, unadulterated food is fuel, processed chemical concoctions are not. White flour and white sugar were proven to be non-foods when developed. “Fortification” hasn’t changed that. No respectable nutritionist would dispute any of this.

If diet played no part in Type 2, then dietary changes would be of no effect. Empirical evidence proves otherwise. The sheer number of people who have experienced improvements in glucose regulation prove efficacy. Obviously, lifestyle changes will not have the immediacy or drugs, but to say it’s not diet-related flies in the face of reality. Diabetes explodes in every indigenous population that adopts a western diet. Can you explain how that happens?

[Songcraft]

"Meanwhile, ketogenic diets stop the damage from Type II diabetes, and supplementation with chromium and vanadium completely kills the diabetes II cash cow permanently."

Can you please share the daily amounts of chromium and vanadium you would recommend, or could you point to some good reliable sites to search in for that dosage information?   Thanks!

[editor-surveyor]

.
If you go to youngevity.com and look up a product called “Sweet eze.”

It is chromium, vanadium, and cinnamon.

How much to take will depend on what you are eating.

They also have a product called “plant derived minerals” which is also tremendously helpful taken daily.

[editor-surveyor]

.
The rise in incidence of Type 2 diabetes in the American population correlates with the depletion of minerals in the soils due to mechanized factory farming.

You cannot live a normal life without certain minerals.

Drugs just accelerate your demise tremendously, by supposedly treating a symptom, but ignoring the deadly side effects of the drug.

[antidisestablishment]

I agree. Having lived on a small farm, the difference in food value was significant. Not only have we depleted the soil, we further denature food through processing. The vital nutrients are regularly stripped from food—sugar and wheat being the most obvious, with milk being a close third. It’s hard to believe that it’s illegal to sell real food because agricultural interests dictate Federal law. Often the nutrients become byproducts that are then added in or sold separately such as molasses or wheat germ.

Drugs have their place, but diet is the key to many modern diseases. I’ve seen the large farms and animal production factories. The monoculture and rampant use of chemicals and drugs is appalling. The funny thing is that half of this came about due to The Jungle—proving there’s no problem that government intervention cannot exacerbate.

[Songcraft]

Thanks very much!

[Bellflower]

You seem quite knowledgeable in the field of nutrition and supplements. I often agree with you or am not aware of some of the knowledge you possess.

I know any number of people who could benefit from your stem cell knowledge. Would you please share with me what you know, including specific beneficial products. Thank you very much!

[Yosemitest]

Way back when ... (1982) ... after my third grandparent died of Diabetes and my last living grandparent had diabetes, but I didn't have it, I realized that I had a very strong chance of getting it.
So I decided to cut processed sugar out of my life, and I was, at that time, using a cup of sugar to make a gallon of ice tea.
I figured that it would be easies to cut it down by 1/4th cup of sugar every two weeks.
I was surprised to discover that the 'sweetness taste" at the end of 2 weeks was abut the same for 3/4ths cup of sugar as it was for 1 cup of sugar per gallon of ice tea.
The same thing happened after 2 weeks with 1/2 cup and again after 2 weeks of 1/4th cup of sugar.

My point is ... that I discovered sugar dulled my taste buds.
I've heard the same thing about other food items, like carbonated soda and salt.
I've also heard that carbonation is harder for your blood to shake off, and makes the blood cells deliver less oxygen to your other cells, because it takes the body longer to get rid of carbonation from sodas, than it does to shed normal carbon-dioxide that your body exhales after the oxygen in your blood is burned up.

Give that some thought, and then take a close look at your food intake.
There may be some elements that you want to cut back on, to regain flavor in your food.

P.S. I passed 60 a few years back.

[itsahoot]

Give that some thought, and then take a close look at your food intake.

P.S. I passed 60 a few years back.

When I was 60 everything tasted good, I am not 60 anymore. 😀

[logi_cal869]

I also wrote “people believe what they want to believe.”

“Low-carb” is a dangerous euphemism. Every single person I’ve ever met rationalizes their own predicament and poor choices, proclaiming that they are “managing” their pre-diabetes by engaging “low-carb” while being a hypocrite and proclaiming that 80/20 “works”.

As you point out, TII diabetes IS reversible, but lo-carb does NOT need to be a new lifestyle. I cannot elaborate without giving away my little secret, but suffice to state that most people make a choice and live their choice with one foot in the grave.

Low-carb is NOT a solution unless adopted as part of a broad, comprehensive regimen to address health issues. This requires much more than simply following a ‘diet’.

It’s not merely “watching what you eat & drink” as you write, but making a choice to not poison yourself into such a precipitous state of health in which your organs fail to function properly (diabetes, among other conditions with varied names all referencing the same thing: Patient-induced symptoms).

I reversed my TII 20 years ago and STILL had follow on health conditions due to my own ignorance, part of which was the search for the perfect ‘diet’.

I have one important distinction to make between my experience and your own:

I recognized the symptoms of TII and permanently-reversed them, now able to consume ANY natural food I choose (with obvious exceptions to toxic compounds, given my “choices”).

You’re promoting sites which proffer to reverse TII but you have not (yet, I hope).

I urge you to find a local ND to assist you in guiding your body to a healing state. Including myself, I know others who saw progress of TII reversal in 6 months. If your condition is not too far progressed, you CAN still recover, but it will take potentially 1-2 years of dedication to save your life.

A small price to pay.

[tnlibertarian]

I’m type 1. Switched to keto last December. I was not really overweight, but have lost 20 pounds of middle-age spread. A1C went from 7.3 to 5.3. Bolus insulin eliminated entirely and basal insulin decreased by a third. Lows are very rare and highs are nonexistent. Low carb is THE answer to diabetes.

[Yosemitest]

Like all things in life, one decision is affected by other decisions and responsibilities.

"I recognized the symptoms of TII and permanently-reversed them,
now able to consume ANY natural food I choose (with obvious exceptions to toxic compounds, given my “choices”)."

I strongly believe that those "obvious exceptions" are all carbohydrates, like processed sugar.

My primary responsibility right now is to care for my aging parents, and their diets and eating habits strongly adversely affect my eating habit, simply because of not wanting to cook three separate meals.
But I have learned over these past 12 years that my body will tell me by my energy level, or lack thereof, what foods hurt my blood sugar.
I'm quite positive that your body has done the same.
I believe in the body's ability to heal itself.
However, with aging that healing process slows down a lot.

Another relative, my brother's wife's mother, had a cancer problem and her cancer became active again.
Her daughter had learned over many years that her cancer cells were a higher percentage of blood levels when her mother ate foods that converted to sugars quickly, like potatoes, and breads, and other sweets.
While visiting my brother, I asked her, if she liked dark green vegetables.
She said some of them, she could eat.
I got her some fresh turnip greens with purple turnips, and some fresh spinach and made her a salad, and cooked the turnip greens for about 3 hours, adding the turnips in the last 30 minutes.
She ate them and liked them.
The next day, when she had her blood tested, her doctor asked her what she had done, and said that her iron levels were way up, and that her blood cells had improved greatly to the good.
I told her that it was the micro-nutrients in the dark greens.

Whole food are a great health benefit, and processed sugars and processed flour kills.

[SamAdams76]

With regard to losing weight, low-carb works every time. The tough part is maintaining it for the long term.

I've had several cycles of losing weight on low-carb diets (50 pounds or more), only to gain most of it back when going to a more typical "American" diet.

Tough to do long-term as you really need to dedicate yourself to shopping the perimeter of the supermarkets and avoiding all pizza, bread, pasta, potatoes, sweets, beer etc.

Beer and pizza are especially hard for me to give up for life! But I'll do it when I'm in weight-losing mode.

I've heard it said that it is more unhealthy to have weight swings then keeping the weight on all the time. I'm not convinced of that. I feel really good when I am losing the weight and then when I am putting it gradually back on. When I get to state where I am not feeling that good, the cycle begins again.

[editor-surveyor]

.
What have you been smoking? (I don’t want any!)